Kenya to Begin Preliminary Debate on Changing of Constitution

(Bloomberg) -- Kenya’s county assemblies will begin debating proposed constitutional changes, a first in a series of steps to potentially overhaul the way the East African nation is governed.

The draft bill sponsored by the Thirdway Alliance Kenya Party, whose presidential aspirant in the 2017 elections got a tiny fraction of the votes, proposes a single seven-year term for the president. It also proposes a raft of measures aimed at reducing the cost of governance and a life sentence for those found guilty of stealing public funds.

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission confirmed that support for Thirdway Alliance’s constitutional amendment initiative surpassed the threshold of 1 million voters, required to proceed. The IEBC will submit the draft bill to each of Kenya’s 47 county assemblies for debate, the commission said Thursday on its Twitter account. The county assemblies will then submit their decisions on the proposals to the two houses of Kenya’s parliament, and then a referendum could be held.

To contact the reporter on this story: Samuel Gebre in Abidjan at sgebre@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Malingha at dmalingha@bloomberg.net, Andre Janse van Vuuren

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